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We typically think of Judy Chicago as the artist and the host of the famous “Dinner Party” (1979). When we think of this “dinner,” we think of 999 names of women in history, important women, in one way or another, that made it to this (hypothetical) utterly infamous par-tay. Feminine in form, the tables are arranged in an equilateral triangle (the shape reminiscent of the pubic area of a female originally derived from primitive art). But in her newest show, Deflowered, which just showed at Riflemaker in London, she has taken her feminine energy and motif’s and transfered them onto an a-typical medium for high art…

Tribal in pattern, brilliant in color, yet painted on the hood of a car, Chicago has taken her femininity and opened it up to a masculine presence. She paints these images on a man’s best friend, their car. Does this mean a shift in power, metaphorically? I don’t know. I really do not know what it means except that it is exciting, fresh, and new. Her patterns are inviting, yet phallic in nature and feminine at the same time – all exuding the exotic, erotic, and more…

Mr. Brainwash – a self declared artist. But is his art, art? In Duchampian terms, the answer would be yes. Art is what you make of it. And art is art if an artist says so. Yet, what MBW has created, some would say is too commercialized, almost like Hirst, but not to that extreme level. Brainwash takes cultural icons and images and puts a spin on them, making them his own. Some people claim his art is not art and it is just a bunch of mashed potatoes of images that we recognize. Think Picasso mixed with Basquiat, Haring, and Warhol all on the same painting with splashes of bright colours – pinks, blues, yellows, greens – dripping down the canvas. But did you think of this? No. Sorry.

Life is BEAUTIFUL and so is art. And on that note, I will admit I am a massive fan of his work. He has brought life back to artists and works that are no longer contemporary and has made them fittingly appropriate in our generation. So what’s the big deal? If you don’t like it, maybe you should EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP. MAY THE ART BE WITH YOU.